Early Life
He was born in Swansea, Wales, the eldest son of Lewis Weston Dillwyn and Mary Dillwyn, née Adams, the natural daughter of Col. John Llewelyn of Penllergare and Ynysygerwn. Upon coming of age he inherited his maternal grandfather John Llewelyn's estates of Penllergare and Ynysygerwn, near Swansea, and assumed the additional surname of Llewelyn. Educated privately, he met through his father (a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society, and at one time a member of Parliament) many of the eminent men of his time. These included Sir David Brewster, Michael Faraday and Charles Wheatstone. His father Lewis Weston Dillwyn had been sent to Swansea in 1803 by Lewis' father William to take over the management of the Cambrian Pottery.
Llewelyn's non-photographic exploits included assisting Wheatstone with the first ever experiments in sub-marine telegraphy, off the Mumbles, South Wales, powering a boat with an electric motor on his lake and creating the first private orchid house to replicate the original conditions of the plants in the South American jungles, complete with heated waterfall.
In 1833 he married Emma Thomasina Talbot, daughter of Thomas Mansel Talbot and Lady Mary Lucy, née Fox Strangways, the younger daughter of the Earl & Countess of Ilchester. Thomas was related to William Davenport Talbot and Mary was the sister of Elisabeth Talbot, the parents of William Henry Fox Talbot. Henry Talbot, through his botanic interests was a friend of Lewis Weston Dillwyn and spent some of his teenage years at Penrice, the home of the Welsh Talbots, also visiting Penllergare.
In 1835 he served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan.
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